December 17, 2007 – New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signs a law abolishing the death penalty in the state. The death sentences of eight men were commuted to life imprisonment without parole. November 20, 2019 — A judge is blocking the federal government from carrying out executions scheduled to begin in December and halting Justice Department plans to reinstate the death penalty. The European Union calls for the ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights and the complete abolition of the death penalty as a condition for the accession of new members to the Union (Copenhagen criteria)[32], as well as to the Council of Europe, which has campaigned for its abolition in several European countries. The European Charter of Human Rights prohibits the death penalty for signatory states and recognises the right of prisoners to benefit from the most favourable legislation (Charter, European Convention on Human Rights or national constitutions). Consequently, the death penalty will not and cannot be applied in practice in Europe. [33] The death penalty was a punishment for many crimes under English common law, but was not applied in any of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence. Methods of execution and capital crimes vary from state to state and have changed over time. The most common method since 1976 has been lethal injection.

Between 1967 and 1977, no executions took place in the United States. As a result, most states have adopted new death penalty laws; The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the legality of the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia of 1976. Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1977, twenty-one States have legally abolished it; the last state to legally abolish it was New Hampshire on May 30, 2019. [3] In addition to the 21 states and the District of Columbia that have officially abolished it in their laws, there are 11 other states where the death penalty still exists in the respective laws of those states, but has not been used in practice for more than a decade. Either there are currently moratoriums that suspend all executions indefinitely, or moratoriums that can be implemented by executive decision of the current governor of the state (who is personally opposed to the death penalty), or by decision of the state judiciary (in the latter case for legal reasons). [4] This means that there are 18 states where the death penalty is in force and has been used in the last 10 years. Today, Hayez is a lawyer who helps people imprisoned and sentenced to death in Yemen for crimes they committed as minors. Although 23 of its 50 states were officially abolished in 2022 and three others have a moratorium [40], others, such as Texas, have concentrated more than a third of the 1,500 executions since the sentence was reintroduced in 1976, after 10 years of suspension by the Supreme Court.

According to Amnesty International, the reactivation of death row by the federal justice system under President Donald Trump is of particular concern, resulting in 10 executions in less than 6 months, an unprecedented number in the previous four decades, during which only three executions were carried out pursuant to Federal Court decisions. On the other hand, according to the United States Death Penalty Information Center. In the United States, the number of blacks executed for murdering whites since 1976 was about 300.15 times higher than the number of whites executed for murdering blacks, which was previously 21, when the number of interracial murders in the first case was just over twice as high. [41] 13. February 2015 – Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf suspends all executions in his state until a task force investigating the death penalty in Pennsylvania releases its final report citing the state`s “error-prone” justice system and “inherent bias” as reasons for the moratorium. Wolf`s trial was later upheld in court after Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams filed a petition claiming the moratorium was an unconstitutional takeover. The moratorium will remain in place even after the publication of the report in June 2018. However, it is important to note that it is very difficult to estimate the actual figures for both executions and sentences, as many countries do not provide any figures or figures in the information they provide; The case is particularly significant in China, where information on the death penalty is declared a state secret, although NGOs estimate that the number of executions reaches several thousand each year. December 31, 2014 – O`Malley commutes the death sentences of the last four statesmen to be executed. It was one of his last acts as governor of Maryland.

Police or judicial authorities may err in establishing the truth, in assessing the personal circumstances of the offender that influenced his guilt or responsibility, or in determining the just sentence imposed on the alleged criminal. In this context, the death penalty can lead to false confessions by detainees and false convictions. The threat of the death penalty has the same effects as torture: it leads some defendants to collude with the police or prosecutors and accept unjust sentences, even for crimes not committed, given the possibility of being sentenced to death if they do not “confess”. [78] Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, states have executed 1,534 people (as of June 2021). 1846 – Michigan becomes the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes other than treason. February 11, 2014 – Washington Governor Jay Inslee announces that he will impose a moratorium on death penalty cases during his tenure. At the European level, the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms stipulates that “the death penalty imposed by a court on the offender, for which the law provides for this penalty”, does not violate the right to life.

The death penalty, death penalty or execution consists of causing the death of a person convicted by the State as punishment for having committed an offence provided for by law. It must be distinguished from extrajudicial executions, as they are carried out without due process. [1] The offences for which this penalty is usually imposed are referred to as “capital crimes”. There is a legal and philosophical debate about the death penalty. In the last months in office, the Trump administration executed a total of 13 federally convicted inmates. 10 of them were executed before the end of 2020 and the remaining 3 in the first weeks of 2021. This series of executions broke a record because the federal government had ordered no more than 10 executions in a single year since 1896 under President Grover Cleveland. [22] [23] Authorities in some countries, such as Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.